Month: December 2024

A photo sharing startup founded by an ex-Google engineer found a clever way to turn Google’s tech against itself.

From business tariffs to regulatory overhauls and anti-immigration policies, the cloud of Donald Trump’s second presidency looms large over U.S. and global businesses. One department has already been weathering a public storm under atmospheric pressure from conservative activists: corporate diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). At Adcolor’s annual conference in Los Angeles last month, members of…

Oscar Mayer’s “Bologna Song” is one of the most iconic advertising jingles, inspiring everyone from “Weird Al” Yankovic to Homer Simpson to sing their own versions. The Kraft Heinz brand is celebrating the tune’s 50th anniversary with a nostalgic campaign that turns singing into a form of payment. Created by agencies Johannes Leonardo and The…

The independent food publisher Tastemade launched its first recipe app, Tastemade Cooking, in mid-November to deepen engagement among Tastemade+ subscribers and capitalize on the culinary fervor surrounding Thanksgiving. The app is technically the second in the Tastemade universe–the first, called Tastemade, is designed for streaming Tastemade video–and it aims to add value to a Tastemade+…

As marketers know only too well, there are trade-offs with everything. And in the era of set-it-and-forget-it tools, that trade-off is one of spend efficiency for ads sometimes showing up in questionable environments. Despite grumbles, a lot of marketers have accepted that trade-off. But with AI fuelled made for advertising sites springing up, the phenomenon…

The Biden administration announced a sweeping set of new export controls that will make it harder for Chinese companies like Huawei and ByteDance to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence.

The organizers behind futuristic golf tournament Tomorrow’s Golf League (TGL) believe they can reach a generation of golfers that don’t play, or watch, the sport in the same way their predecessors did.

TGL, whose backers include golfers Tiger Woods and Rory McElroy, is a simulator golf tournament. Six teams of four golfers will compete over the course of a 20-match season, with Woods making his league debut in the second week. The first seven matches will air on ESPN, with the remainder on ESPN2 and ESPN+; 16 out of the 20 will be shown during prime time. 

Weeks away from its January 7th TV debut, TGL has reeled in 11 brand partners. Among them are SoFi and “founding” sponsors Genesis, Best Buy and B2B Saas firm Businessolver, as well as minor partners such as CapTech, Full Swing, ONEFlight and SYNLawn. Tomorrow Sports, the company behind TGL, and its partner brands haven’t disclosed financial details regarding their deals, though Businessolver and Genesis’ partnerships have been valued at $750,000 and $800,000 respectively.

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As 2024 comes to a close, the gaming divisions of the agency holding companies are reporting that this was their biggest year yet. The secret behind much of this growth? Roblox.

As gaming evolved from an experimental area to a standard portion of brands’ media planning in recent years, agency holding companies responded by spinning up their own dedicated gaming divisions. At the moment, four of the “big six” holdcos have gaming-specific offerings, including Dentsu Gaming, Havas Play, Publicis Play and Omnicom’s LevelUp OAC. Digiday contacted four agencies, including Wavemaker, The Marketing Arm, Publicis Media and Dentsu, to see how their business grew or evolved in 2024.

A year of growth

Across the board, representatives of the holdcos and the agencies that comprise them said that their gaming business had grown over the past year, both through interest from new clients and via increased spend in the space on the part of pre-existing clients — although these statements were largely anecdotal and not backed by specific numbers.

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The ad industry’s leading creator agencies have adopted AI tools as the key to providing scalable, efficient influencer activity. But it seems marketers aren’t striking agency deals based on their AI expertise.

Despite agencies’ bids to use AI tools and solutions to distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace, brand practitioners and industry experts are skeptical of their need, and of potential “AI-washing.” Agencies including Stagwell-owned Leaders, recent Publicis Groupe acquisition Influential, WPP creator agency Obviously and independent players such as Humanz and The Cirqle each offer AI-enabled services.

GroupM influencer agency Goat, for example, uses an AI search tool called “Ibex” to find suitable creators for client campaigns. Leaders, which was acquired by Stagwell back in July and boasts Coca-Cola, Estée Lauder, and Superdry among its clients, similarly provides an “AI-powered” database of 300 million creators.

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